YusukeUrameshi a normal teenage boy, yeah right. You know as well as I that Yusuke is nowhere near ordinary. This time we find that Yusuke has been invited to the Dark Tournament. Master Genkai gives Yusuke some training, and then they’re off for the Hanging-Neck Island (where the tournament is held). It will be during this tournament that he will be able to confront Toguro, finding out who the stronger one is. To compete in the Dark Tournament, you need to have a five member team. Tagging along with Yusuke is Kuwabara, Kurama, Hiei, and a mysterious masked fighter. Yusuke and his team will find out just what kind of powerful competitors will be competing in the tournament. Will his team make it past the first round? To find out, you will take control of our hero and his team to

compete in the Dark Tournament!

Sound Quality: 8

The background music of the menu has a nice mellow theme. A mellow theme was also used for the Token Game. When you are fighting in the tournament, fast paced themes help give a somewhat suspenseful feel. Background sounds are also included in the battles, crowds cheering, waves hitting the arena, etcetera.

Video/FMV: 5

Actual scenes from the Yu Yu Hakusho series are edited to become your cut scenes. The cut scenes appear before every chapter in the game, even after many of the battles, which can be a bit annoying. Scenes from the series were also used in the ending as well as beginning sequences. I do however feel they could have done a bit better in editing these, as you can often see lips moving while there isn’t any talking taking place, as well as the scenes seem to have a bit of a jitter to them.

Voice/Dialogue: 7

The voices sound exactly as it would if you were watching the series, since the same voices were used.

Controls: 4

The controls were fairly simple to figure out; Square for jab, Triangle for punch, Circle for kick and X for block. Unfortunately in the option menu you cannot change the buttons to your whim. There are only two settings, and the default is preferable. The move combinations were not so easy to pull off, even though they weren’t difficult to learn. Also during the battles the controls seemed to be pretty sluggish, making it harder to fight against your opponent.

Gameplay: 7

You get to take control of the different characters from the popular anime Yu Yu Hakusho, in order to take Yusuke all the way to the finals in the Dark Tournament. When you first start the game, you can only choose to play: Dark Tournament, which is the main story; Arcade, normal mode where you fight against the other characters round for round until you defeat the last opponent; Token Game, similar to the card games found in other genre’s, except with tokens; Training, where you can learn and practice moves; and Skirmish, where you can play a match against either a friend or the computer.

The Dark Tournament mode is portrayed like a story, in chapters. You will see one of the cut scenes giving you info on the chapter you will be playing. After the cut scene, a pop up message will give you the rules for the stage, and wait for you to press the X button to continue. Some stages/battles you can choose the character to play, while others you get one chosen for that stage. You can also use the tag team feature for some battles, tagging in one of three other characters, which is very helpful.

You have two gauges, the life and spirit gauge. Once your life gauge runs out, it is either the end of the match, or depending on the rules end of the match for that character, leaving the rest to use. The spirit gauge is depleted by completing spirit moves. If the spirit move is interrupted, you can bet the gauge still depletes the amount for that move. Some spirit moves take up more time than others and can leave you open for an attack from your opponent. As well as spirit moves you can use regular attacks, and combo attacks. Some of the combos are easy to use, while others are near impossible to pull off correctly with the sluggish controls. Expect to die and lose quite often while playing, even when it isn’t on very hard.

Replay Value: 7

There are plenty of characters to unlock for playing. There are also extra chapters to unlock, extra games, many more tokens for the Token Game, and even cheats.

Overall: 6.3

Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament is exactly as it is supposed to be, a video game featuring the Dark Tournament. If you have already seen the series, not much comes to surprise at all during the game, but if you haven’t, it may spoil a small bit of what is to come. While not being on the top of my list, with Yu Yu Hakusho: Dark Tournament, you get what you pay for.